Marstons bullying

ruinedPotatoes

I’ll try to keep this brief. We moved last year, and asked our then energy company to provide us with a final bill. They didn’t. We asked several times, they finally said they wouldn’t send the final bill anywhere but where the account was, so clearly we had no way of getting it (landlord moved back into their house and did not forward anything or inform us of any post they might have gotten for us, so that wasn’t an option). 

The debt was passed on to Marstons, who have added a ridiculous amount of money to it (it’s now over 2x the original bill). They took us to court (In Norwich, several hours north of us) during the height of the pandemic, when the whole country was on lockdown. Obviously, they won by default. 

When they finally got around to notifying us of all of this (funny how they could suddenly find our correct address!!), my husband tried to make a payment arrangement. They flat out refused. They said they wouldn’t even attempt to make a repayment arrangement until the ‘enforcement officer’ could come round to assess our living situation and see what could be taken to sell. 

The guy showed up last week, demanding £1000 and saying he would take our car, which is a hire purchase so legally he cannot take it. He also then threatened to take our in-laws camper van to sell, which we showed him paperwork proving it’s not ours. He was going to take it anyway, so my husband agreed to pay him £500 when he got paid, and £100/mo. He didn’t seem to care what he could/couldn’t legally take. 

The enforcement officer says the £500 is just his fee and his alone, and demanded my husband pay him directly. None of that fee went towards the debt at all. 

This was the enforcement officers first visit. As far as I can tell, the very most he could charge would be £325 (as debt is now over £1k). All of this seems extremely dodgy, from them refusing to allow a payment arrangement AT ALL, to him charging £500 just for his ‘fee’ and keeping it and not paying any of it towards our debt owed. 

Do we have any scope to make a complaint? I would also like to note I am considered a vulnerable person due to my mental health, they said none of that mattered because they had a court order so they could do whatever they wanted. They said they didn’t have to give us time, make arrangements, nothing. 

This has now put us into an incredibly difficult financial position and my husband just made the £500 payment without telling me, so we’re missing payments on all our bills to avoid the guy coming to bully us again. 

samwilki

Was he a High Court Enforcement officer with a writ of possession?  If not they have no rights to take any of your items?

ruinedPotatoes

samwilki said:

Was he a High Court Enforcement officer with a writ of possession?  If not they have no rights to take any of your items?

If he was, he didn’t show any proof of it. When we called Marstons, they claimed they had a writ. They said he was a high court enforcement officer and because they’d taken us to court none of the requirements applied to them. 

We’ve not received anything other than a notice saying they were taking my husband to court, and then a Marstons letter saying we now owe them court fees plus the debt and that we could make payment arrangements which they flat out refused. 

It feels like they’re just doing whatever they want in an attempt to get the fees as high as possible. 

Galloglass

Do we have any scope to make a complaint?

You can complain but about what? If there has been a default CCJ which has been escalated to HCEO, you need to get a set aside of the original CCJ based on not being able to defend the case against you. This will cost £255 but you may get a reduction if you are on low income, and you may be able to get the other side to pay if they have been remiss in contacting you about the case - but don't expect it back.

If you are successful in getting the CCJ set aside then you may be able to get the bailiff fees returned to you but they are notoriously difficult to get back. You might have to take the issue up with the Ombudsman.

The main issue with knowing you owed a debt and not following it up, is there is blame on both sides. Not a suitable starting point for a set-aside.

did not forward anything or inform us of any post they might have gotten for us

It's called mail redirection and can be up to a year.

sourcrates

No one enforcing a judgment has the right to force entry into residential premises unless they have a signed walking possession agreement or were forcibly ejected previously.

However, the HCEO or bailiff may climb a perimeter wall or fence to get into the grounds of the property. They can enter where a door is open, opening further to aid entry if required.

Once inside, they can break down the inner doors of the property to find goods belonging to the defendant. They may not be forcibly ejected, however, if they are, they can now force re-entry back into the property. Also, once they have a signed Controlled Goods Agreement, they may also force entry, if necessary, on a return visit.

So simply locking the door could have avoided this.

Fee`s are payable for a bailiff visit, complaining will get you no where, Marstans are a bunch of coyboys, as you have unfortunatly discovered.